Posted on 08/13/2005 9:44:28 AM PDT by NYorkerInHouston
Raymond J. Learsy has written a book memorable in the special sense that nightmares can be memorable, but also useful. If the nightmare is that you died of an overdose of drugs, and the memory of it causes you when in command to draw back from the marginal dose, then the nightmare has served a purpose. Raymond Learsy writes (his book is called "Over a Barrel: Breaking the Middle East Oil Cartel") about what could happen if we continue to go as we are going. The price of gasoline as I write is 60 percent higher than it was a year ago. Such data require extrapolation.
After 200 pages of history and analysis, telling the story of the founding of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), of manipulations and broken promises and extortion and opportunism, Learsy acknowledges OPEC's success. Sixty-dollar-a-barrel oil is certainly a success, but the body on which it feeds does not expand, pari passu, with the successes of OPEC. It does not matter how much you consume, if the supplies are inexhaustible and your capacity insatiable. But here is what we might be facing if oil rose to $100 per barrel.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It is amazing what one can get by on.
During the 72 gas line times, we got by on a third of the gas we had used before. We just thought about it before driving down to DC for lunch.
ANd in La, I grew up with no AC or heat and never missed it except for a few weeks in Aug and the occasional cold snap. Now our AC, heat pump runs all the time. I swear we could do without it except for mildew.
There is no Government solutions since our Government has created this problem. For the last 30 years, there has been no new refineries built nor nuke plants. The Enviro Nazis are going to ruing our economy. These are the druds who make up the Government and want to the Dumocrats back in office.
Hold on to your hats folks, this will be one hell of a ride with gas at $4.00 a gallon by Christmas. This article has some merit.
What has not been mentioned is the collapse of our fiscal system. When people stop buying products and the up coming massive layoffs this fall, the Government's tax system will collapse. We are already on a $500B deficit and printing more money will only increase the inflationary spending.
The up coming events this fall will make Jimmy Carter's Administration look good compared to the double digit inflation and interest rates that are right around the corner.
Somebody sometime down the line will face Peak Nuke theory.
Needs multiply. There is no limit. Whatever you have, when you have a minute to sit and think and look around, suddenly there is something else you need.
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